Friday, May 1, 2009

Dispatch from the Trop

Dateline: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida.I finagled an invitation to the Rays' series with Boston. For Rays affiliates this is like having a relative in Florida with a house on the beach. You’re inclined to invite yourself down for a visit.

After an 8-14 start, their worst since ’04, the Thursday headlines were “Rays need to find spark” and "Maddon faces greatest leadership test.”

It’s an entirely different story Friday morning after the Ray’s totally spanked Boston 13-0. Matt Garza pitched a one-hitter with ten strike-outs, and the Rays’ bats came to life. Today's headlines: “Near perfect” and “Have a little more faith.”

And there was icing on the cake for the Durham Bulls. On the shuttle back to the hotel I overheard a dejected Boston fan observe that the Rays have the best farm system in MLB. A wise Red Sox fan, indeed!

Your Blogger...

I'm VP of the Sports Group at Capitol Broadcasting Co. My office is in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park - a great place to work. (And wonderfully distracting!)

CBC owns the Bulls, operates four sports-talk radio stations in Raleigh and wralSPORTSfan.com. Our radio brands are The Fan, Buzz Sports Radio, The Ticket and ESPN Deportes. We are a partner with Learfield Sports at Wolfpack Sports Properties, and our TV stations connect viewers with NBC, Fox and ACC sports. Our radio stations are the RDU flagships for NC State, Duke Univ, the NHL Carolina Hurricanes and the Bulls.

We even built a basketball court at our American Tobacco complex in Durham and a play area for grown-ups! There's a brewery in the ballpark, too. It's work. It's play. I can't always tell the difference!?!